IL- Sex-offender status stalls would-be barber

8-6-2009 Illinois:

State refuses to grant license to man after recommendations from parole officer, psychologist

To the customers who've flocked to his small Braidwood barbershop for 50 years, Joseph "Muzzy" Muzzarelli is a master of the flattop cut and straight-razor shave who offers an endless stream of true-life tales, no extra charge.

His hometown recognized his longevity last month, awarding him a plaque that now hangs from his shop wall and naming him the 4th of July parade's grand marshal.

But as Muzzarelli, 79, considers retiring and installing his son Jay as the maestro at Muzzy's Barbershop, he finds himself embroiled in one of the nation's most emotionally charged issues -- how and if sexual offenders should be brought back into society. Most people in town don't know it, but his son Jay Muzzarelli, 43, was convicted in 2003 of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a 7-year-old girl in Kankakee County.

Yet his licensed, court-appointed clinical psychologist, Dr. Jim Simone, calls the younger Muzzarelli an outlier -- no prior criminal history and one of only about 20 people out of more than 500 to successfully complete their probation and court-ordered sex offender treatment program.

The state initially rejected his application to become a licensed cosmetologist, but after a hearing last year at which his parole officer and psychologist took the unusual step of testifying on his behalf, an administrative law judge and a state committee recommended the license be granted. Their conditions included two years of probation and that there be a sign in Muzzy's Main Street window warning customers that a sex offender works there.

In December, the state regulatory agency's top official overruled them, finding that it was "against the public's interest" for Muzzarelli to be a cosmetologist who could potentially come into contact with children and legally perform treatments -- like body wraps -- beyond just cutting hair.

The case now has landed in Will County Circuit Court, where a judge will decide whether a license should go to someone who fulfilled his sentence -- and whose close friends have stuck by him, with one even naming him godfather to his children -- but has committed a particularly horrific crime.

To Joseph Muzzarelli, leaning back in his cast-iron barber's chair recently, it seems simple. His son did all the law required of him, though Muzzarelli -- despite his son's guilty plea and repeated, unequivocal admissions of guilt since -- doesn't believe Jay abused the girl.

"I pray every night that this is cleared. ... I'll keep fighting for him if I have to wait to be 100 years old," said Muzzarelli, who'd willingly put up the sex offender warning sign in his window. "You want to stick around to see everything straighten out. Oh, I hope I live long enough to see that his path is clear."

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation declined to comment in detail about its finding against Muzzarelli. "We think it's a fairly high standard that must be met for someone to be able to have a license in light of a conviction where it has involved such [a] type of encounter with a child," Diane Para, the department's attorney, said at the October license hearing, according to a transcript.

Para said the department director had twice in recent years denied probationary licenses to sex offenders who were recommended for them by the oversight committee and a judge.

Braidwood residents struggle with the question. The Muzzarellis are well-known and most people interviewed said they'd stick by the family. Some said they didn't know how the community would react, but believed loyalists would continue to frequent the shop while others would see the sex-offender sign and never set foot inside again.

"I didn't know about any of this but I know both of them and, yes, I would trust them," town Commissioner Fay Smith said, adding she has been getting her hair cut at Muzzy's for some 40 years and would continue to go if Jay took over.

Police are aware Muzzarelli is a registered sex offender, Acting Police Chief Brandon Meyers said. Various officers get their hair cut there, Meyers said, adding the town would be fine with "whatever the courts decide."

Richard Burton, the family's attorney, said it was "astonishing" that his client hadn't been granted a probationary license. He declined to let Muzzarelli be interviewed, but he was questioned at length during his license hearing last year.

"My intent is to provide a safe barbershop for the community, carry on my dad's tradition of cutting hair in this one location and never branching out, be an active member of society, provide for myself," Jay Muzzarelli said at his October hearing. "I don't want to hurt anybody. I go by the motto, 'No more victims.' ..Source.. by Steve Schmadeke Tribune reporter